


The Heart of an Angel

by SingingInTheRaiin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Demons Aren't All Bad, Gen, Harry is the devil, M/M, Tom's life is basically the same as in canon, except that he's with his mom for like a year, getting into some religious stuff, i am zero percent religious though, literally conducting intricate rituals, technically, they just want some praise and appreciation for their work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22430629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: Tom summons the devil because he wants to sell his soul in exchange for immortality. The devil, Harry, is nothing at all like Tom had expected. And Tom definitely didn't expect to be told that Harry had three days to change his mind about selling his soul. Wasn't the devil supposed to want Tom's soul?
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Comments: 18
Kudos: 303





	The Heart of an Angel

Tom double-checked all of the symbols that he had painted across the floor, because if even one small thing was slightly out of place, the ritual could fail, or worse. All Tom wanted was to summon the devil and make a deal for immortality, was that really so much to ask? 

Satisfied with the perfection of his set-up, Tom looked at the pages of the old book that he’d found in the back of Borgin and Burkes. He made sure to wear gloves while handling it so that his skin wouldn’t ruin the already brittle pages, and he cleared his throat once before he started to read. 

He was careful to pronounce each word exactly as it was meant to be said, and walked in circles around the circle he had drawn. When he was finished, he set the book aside, and then stared eagerly at the center of the circle. There was suddenly gray smoke swirling around, and Tom’s eyes widened. Something was actually happening! Of course he had to believe it would work on some level or he never would have tried it, but a large part of him had expected it to all just be a bunch of hogwash. Magic was one thing, but the devil himself being real?

When the smoke finally cleared away, there was a man left there, though he wasn’t standing regal and tall like Tom would have expected. Instead, he was sitting in the center of the circle with his legs crossed, round glasses slipping down to the end of his nose as he read whatever book he was holding. 

Tom cleared his throat, and the man blinked a few times, and looked around in confusion. “Oh- uh, hello. Sorry, did you summon me?”

Tom frowned. “Obviously.” He was already completely taken aback by how different this man was from how Tom had pictured the devil. 

The man folded down the corner of the page he was on, and then carefully set his book aside before getting to his feet. He was shorter than Tom, with unruly black hair, and eyes that fittingly looked as green as the killing curse. He was wearing jeans and a bright white shirt that was untucked and obnoxiously wrinkled. The man glanced down at his own clothes before looking back up at Tom sheepishly. “Sorry about that. If you’d just made an appointment, I would have worn something nicer. Anyways, I’m Harry.” He held his hand out, though it was stopped abruptly at the edge of the circle.

Tom wasn’t stupid enough to reach his hand into the circle. Based on everything he’d read, he just needed to make his deal, and then once it was fulfilled, he could safely break the circle and let Harry go. Still, he was confused about Harry’s appearance. “You’re the devil?” he asked just to make sure.

Harry nodded, a cheerful little smile on his face. “Yup! That’s me. So what is it that I can do for you?”

Tom narrowed his eyes. “I want to live forever.”

Harry tilted his head, a thoughtful look on his face. “Really? Why? Wouldn’t it get boring after a while? I mean, sure the world is full of all kinds of wonderful things, but it’s still finite. Plus if you live forever, you probably won’t see the magic left in the world anyways.” There was something wistful in his voice when he said that, but Tom wasn’t in the mood to care about the devil’s feelings.

He just scoffed. “Is it really your job to question what I want? My soul in exchange for immortality.”

“Actually, it is my job to question it,” Harry told him softly. “I’ve got three days to try and change your mind about selling your soul.”

Tom took a small step closer to the circle. “Why on Earth would you do that? Don’t you want as many souls as you can get?”

Harry shrugged, and reached up to push his glasses further up his nose. “It’s a fairness clause, nothing I can do about it. So are you going to make me stay in here for the next three days, or what?”

“I’m certainly not crazy enough to just let the devil roam free before I’ve even secured a deal.” Tom gave Harry a long, scrutinizing look, and then he stomped out of the room in a huff. He went to the library to look for every book he could find that made any mention of the devil, and tried to see if there was anything there about having to wait three days before a deal could be made. Because he didn’t recall reading anything like that in his initial bout of studying, and he didn’t think that was the kind of thing he would have skipped over. 

He stayed until he could feel the librarian glaring at him once she’d finished packing up her things, and he put his stack of books back on the return cart before hurrying away. When he returned to his flat, he half-expected Harry to be long gone, having used the three days thing as a ruse to escape. 

Instead, Harry was curled up in the circle, glasses folded and set aside on top of his book, and arms wrapped around his knees as he shivered slightly. Could the devil really get cold? Maybe it was because he was used to living in hell, which was supposedly very hot. Tom didn’t want to get a bad deal just because he didn’t show any hospitality, so he grabbed his spare blanket and tossed it into the circle, careful not to let his own hand cross the line. 

The blanket landed on Harry’s feet, and he cracked his eyes open slightly. When he saw the blanket, he tugged it up and wrapped it tightly around himself. “Thanks.” His voice was just a sleepy murmur, and Tom couldn’t help wondering why the devil wasn’t, well, scarier. 

He sat down outside of the circle, and stared at Harry. Harry sighed and sat up, though he kept the blanket wrapped around him so that he was cocooned by it. “Do you need to sleep?”

Harry shook his head. “Guess not. I mean, it feels nice, but it isn’t necessary for me.” As if to disprove his words, though, he let out a loud yawn. Then he reached over to grab his glasses without looking, hand awkwardly patting around a few times before he found them. “You gonna ask about my glasses next?” Tom arched one eyebrow as if to say ‘may as well’. “Old habits can be very difficult to get rid of.”

Tom frowned as he took in the pathetic figure that sat in front of him. “Some stories say the devil is beautiful, but you’re not. Others say that you’re a ferocious beast, but you’re clearly not. Why do you look so…”

“Unassuming?” Harry suggested. Tom nodded once, and then waited for an answer. Harry thought about it for a moment before he shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t control what I look like anymore than you do. As for what people choose to write about me, that isn’t my choice either.”

They both sat there in silence for a few minutes after that, until Tom thought of another question. “So what exactly do you plan to do to change my mind about selling my soul?”

Harry snorted. “As if I’d have any kind of plan. I’m more of a ‘run in and hope for the best’ kind of guy.” 

Tom sighed. “Great. Can I send you back and get a more professional devil?” 

“Sorry, it’s just me. If it would help, you can pretend that I’m someone else. I can grow a beard or something.”

Clean-shaven versus having a beard really didn’t seem like the issue at the moment. “If it’s just you, how do you have time to spend three days with everyone who summons you and deal with whatever hellish bureaucracy you’re supposed to handle?”

“The number of people who are able to pull off a successful summoning is surprisingly low. Though sometimes if someone tries really hard, I’ll show up even if they mix up a few details.”

Tom frowned. “Did I mess anything up?”

Harry shook his head. “Nope, you were perfect! Good thing, too, because you were a bit of a surprise, so I wouldn’t have known to come here if you had made any mistakes.”

Tom continued to frown as he stared at the captive devil. Then he abruptly got to his feet and announced that he was going to bed before trouncing into his bedroom. He was determined to gain immortality, and there was nothing Harry could do to change his mind.  
,,,

Harry rushed down the stone corridor, and then stopped when he spotted one of his two best friends. “‘Mione! Boy am I glad to see you!” 

She stopped and turned around, and then gave Harry a knowing look. “Tricky case?” Her expression softened after a moment, though, and she must have seen the genuine distress on Harry’s face. “What’s wrong?”

He took a deep breath in, then slowly let it out. “I’m being transferred. Demoted, really. I- I’m not even sure if I should be telling you this, it’s all supposed to be very hush hush, but I need to tell someone. Voldemort disappeared three weeks ago, and nobody’s got any idea where he went.”

Hermione’s eyes widened in alarm. “What? Then who’s running-?”

Harry looked down at the floor. “They’re sending me down. They need a devil and they picked me. I don’t know what I did wrong, but it must have been something truly awful to deserve this. How am I supposed to survive down there? It’s so cold and lonely and dark and damp.”

Hermione frowned. “Well, there are others down there. You won’t actually be alone.”

Harry knew that she was just trying to cheer him up, but it really wasn’t working. “Yeah, others like Draco and Gellert and their respective crews. I know you must have read every book there is, have you ever heard of anything like this happening before?”

Hermione pressed her lips together as she thought about it, and then she slowly shook her head, an apologetic look on her face. “I’m sorry, but I have no idea what’s going on. I’ve never heard of a guardian angel being sent to the dungeons at all, let alone to take over. I never even knew it was possible for Voldemort to quit. He’s been there since-”

“Forever,” Harry finished grimly. “I know.” And if Voldemort didn’t return to his post soon, then Harry would be trapped playing the devil forever.  
,,,

Tom woke up to the smell of something delicious cooking, and he followed his nose in something of a tired haze. He paused when he saw Harry, still contained within his circle, stirring a few pots and pans over an open flame that hovered just above the floor. “Are you insane? You’re going to burn this whole building down!”

Harry looked up from his cooking, and it took a few seconds for the steam on his glasses to clear up. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”

“Where did you get that stuff, anyways? I thought you couldn’t leave the circle.” He couldn’t hide the irritation in his voice that came with the idea of him not knowing everything about a situation that he had gotten himself into.

Harry answered cheerfully enough. “Ah, I didn’t leave. Being the devil comes with quite a few perks. If I have the kind of power necessary to make whatever deals I want in exchange for souls, do you really think that it would be so difficult for me to make my own life a bit easier? If you’d made this circle bigger, I would have grabbed a cot for myself, too.” 

“Were you… uncomfortable?” Tom asked hesitantly. Not that he really cared, but he was curious to learn as much about the man he was trying to sell his soul to as possible.

Instead of answering, Harry scooped out food from each of the pans he’d been using, and held it out towards Tom. Tom gingerly took the edge that was sticking out of the circle, and yanked it back before Harry could try to use it to pull him in (though at this point, Tom was seriously doubting that Harry had any ill intentions, despite being the devil himself). “I’m a pretty decent cook,” Harry said with a hint of pride in his voice. “And you don’t have to worry about me trying to poison you or anything, because I can’t buy your soul if your dead.” 

If Harry hadn’t said anything, it probably wouldn’t have even occurred to Tom that an attempted poisoning was possible here. Harry just seemed to be too… good. Maybe that was all just a trick to get Tom to lower his guard, but somehow he didn’t think that was the case. So he took a bite, and let out an appreciative moan. “This is good. Aren’t you going to eat any?”

Harry shrugged. “I tend not to. Treacle tart is one of the few exceptions, but eggs and toast don’t make the cut.”

Tom took another few bites before asking his next question. “Why do you want to buy peoples’ souls, anyways? I mean, what do they do for you? Do you eat them, or hang them above your mantle, or keep them to torture for all of eternity or what? Because from what I’ve read of you, some people manage to walk away with some very impressive deals. There must be a reason you’re willing to give up so much for a soul.”

“Well I certainly don’t eat them. That would be like eating a- a book, or something.”

It didn’t escape Tom’s attention that Harry didn’t actually answer the question, but he decided to let it go for now. He still had two days or so for Harry to try and convince him to forget about the deal he wanted, so he’d just ask again some other time. The fact that Harry didn’t want to tell him right off the bat only intrigued Tom more, so he definitely wasn’t going to just forget about it. 

Once Tom finished eating, he decided that he could at least do the washing up, since Harry had done the cooking. He stood and told Harry to nudge the dirty pans out of the circle so Tom could grab them, but Harry just grinned. “Ah, that’s actually not necessary. Like I said, there are perks to the job.” The pans disappeared a moment later, as did the fire that had been used to heat them up. 

Tom rolled his eyes at the show of wandless magic. He had mastered the art of silently casting spells ages ago, but even he had never heard of intentional magic being done without some kind of conduit. The only exception was the accidental magic that came from young, untrained magical folk, and that was almost never properly organized or controlled. “So the devil’s a wizard, then? I’m not sure whether the Ministry would be pleased by that or not.”

Harry laughed. “You assume that wizards are the only ones who can do magic. Magic isn’t exclusive to humans. If it was, there’d be no magical artifacts or creatures. No, magic is a gift.” The mirth on his face faded as he spoke, and his words became softer. “Magic was always meant to be shared with everyone, even if it wasn’t directly gifted to every individual human. You were the ones who chose to covet it and hide it away.”

Tom narrowed his eyes. “Surely you’ve heard of all the witch hunts muggles have conducted over the years? It’s not like we started it.”

Harry shrugged. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter either way. But no matter how much you try, you’ll never be able to hide it entirely. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of muggle stories that contain magic in some form or another.”

Tom pulled out his wand just to vanish the dirty plate in his hand so that he could crouch down in front of the circle and get a better look at Harry. “Were you ever a human?”

There was only a brief pause before Harry shook his head. “No.” Tom narrowed his eyes as he gave Harry a long, scrutinizing look. It sounded as though Harry was being honest, but there was something about that moment of hesitation that made it seem like he hadn’t told the entire truth. Harry cleared his throat, obviously wanting to change the subject. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself, Tom? Immortality is a pretty big ambition. I’d imagine that it’s the kind of request that would come from a rather interesting person.”

It was hard to say whether or not Harry already knew everything about him, but Tom decided that it would be best to be honest here. “I just graduated school a couple of years ago, and I’ve been working in a local shop ever since. I have quite a few… friends who believe the same things that I do, and I have a lot of plans for the future.”

Harry tilted his head. “What kind of beliefs?”

Somehow, it was difficult to imagine saying the words out loud to Harry, even though Tom had shared his beliefs more times than he could count by now. There was just something about Harry. Despite being the devil, something about him seemed so innocent, made it seem like it would be wrong to taint that innocence with the thoughts that constantly ran through Tom’s mind. But in the end, Harry was the devil, which meant that surely he was used to hearing the worst of humanity, assuming that he didn’t outright support it. “Perhaps this will sound strange coming from a half-blood like myself, but we believe in blood purity. The wizarding community only grows weaker the more diluted that it gets, Magic is the most powerful force in the world, and it’s completely wasted on those with mud-”

“Right,” Harry interrupted in a slightly louder voice than normal. “I get it, thanks.” Tom studied Harry intently. That disturbed look on Harry’s face seemed far too realistic to be faked. “Why don’t you tell me about your hobbies?”

Tom kept up the searching look for another few seconds before he sighed and gave in. It was probably all just part of whatever convincing Harry thought he could do, and Tom wasn’t going to fall for it, of course. But he did rather enjoy talking about himself, and it’s not as though Harry was going anywhere. At least not for another two days.  
,,,

Harry looked around his new chambers. They were nicer than he’d expected, considering the fact that they were located in the dungeons. He wasn’t sure why there was so much green everywhere, though. It made the whole place have something of a sickly glow about it, and Harry wasn’t fond of that at all.

If Harry actually started redecorating the place, then that meant he was accepting the fact that his role here was permanent. He didn’t want to accept it, but it had also been over a month since Voldemort’s disappearance, and still no one had seen any sign of him anywhere. And no matter what else Harry believed, he knew that it was necessary for there to be a devil, so if it was going to be him, then he was going to be the best devil he could possibly be.

And that started with the ambiance. He started in his own chambers, carefully pulling down every scrap of dark green and silver that he came across (neatly folding them and storing them away in case Voldemort returned and wanted things to look the way he’d left them). After trying out a few different color schemes, Harry settled on red and gold. They brightened the whole set of rooms, and made them feel as though they were filled with natural light.

Then Harry expanded, out into the hallways. Of course he would never go into anyone else’s rooms and mess around with the decor, but since he was in charge, he was allowed to decide what the layout of the general areas looked like. When some of the demons emerged from their rooms, he could see that it was about an even split between those who looked disgusted and those who looked appreciative of the changes. It made Harry wonder if he wasn’t the only guardian angel who’d been sent to the dungeons, despite what Hermione had been able to find in her studies.

Redecorating the dungeons was all well and good, but it wasn’t until the first time he found a report about a deal that Harry realized that his work was really cut out for him. One of the demons had been summoned by a human who intended to sell their soul, but only the devil could make the final authorization to pass the deal.

Harry hurried through the halls to find the demon in question, one named Blaise, who he’d never met before. Blaise blinked at Harry in confusion when Harry waved around the file. “What’s this?”

Blaise frowned, and crossed his arms over his chest. “You know what it is. I was quite thorough in my report because I know that you’re new at this.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Yeah, okay, I get what it is, but I mean like, what’s the point? What’s the purpose in buying souls from humans?”

One of the other demons standing nearby, whose name Harry didn’t know, frowned at him. “What are you on about, ‘what’s the point’? That’s our job, you idiot. I’m amazed that you were sent to be in charge when you clearly have no idea what you’re doing.” The sneer that followed the statement was familiar, even if the face it was on was not. 

Harry frowned. “I just meant that- well, it doesn’t seem right. I’ve spent my entire existence protecting-” he cut himself off when it was clear that that route wasn’t going to work, and then he took a deep breath and tried again. “If we could give all this stuff to a person in exchange for a single soul, then that means that they must be valuable, right? Which means that the humans must need them? What happens to a human that sells their soul?”

The demons glanced at each other, and Harry could tell what they were thinking. They thought that he was a complete moron that didn’t know anything. In his defense, it’s not exactly like he’d been handed an instruction manual on how to be the devil. Voldemort was the only one with experience at this particular career, and he certainly hadn’t left behind any notes on how to do the job. 

Blaise cleared his throat, and spoke very slowly, like he was trying to explain a difficult concept to a toddler. “When a human sells their soul, they live out the rest of their days without it, and then when they die, that’s the end of them.”

Harry furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “What do you mean? When they die they spend a time equal to their lifespan upstairs, and then they move on to their next life.”

The other demon shook his head. “They need a soul to move on. Without it, their journey is over.”

Harry couldn’t hide the horrified look on his face. “Over? Forever? After traversing the cycle for eternity, they’re just gone? And for what?”

Both demons shrugged. “You’re the boss, you should know what to do with the souls. They do go to you, afterall.” 

Harry bit his lip as he looked back down at the file in his hand. No, the person in question didn’t sound like the most amazing person ever, but that didn’t mean that they should just cease to exist. It didn’t seem right, and Harry wasn’t going to stand for it. He closed the folder, and gave a terse nod to both demons. “If you gentlemen will excuse me.” Then he hurried back to his chambers, where he already knew a stamp was waiting to mark the contract as unsuitable. He knew that the human would require some kind of explanation for why their offer was being rejected, so Harry decided to go visit them in person. He’d just convince them that they didn’t really want to sell their soul after all, and then there would be no problem. How could Harry get in trouble for anything if it was the human’s decision to give up on making a deal?  
,,,

Tom got home from work, and saw Harry playing a card game with himself. “Who’s winning?”

Harry’s head jerked up, and honestly Tom wasn’t sure why he found the thought of the devil being so easy to startle to be… endearing, in a way. It made him feel more human. Harry’s whole posture relaxed when he saw that it was Tom standing there. “Me, obviously. Want to call dibs on playing the winner?”

Tom rolled his eyes at the ridiculousness of the man who called himself the devil. “Fine.” Then he retreated into his room so that he could change into more comfortable clothes, and wash up after a long day of working with dusty old artifacts. 

When he returned to the living room, he saw Harry standing and stretching his arms up above him, which caused his shirt to ride up and reveal a sliver of skin of his stomach. The space that Harry was trapped in was clearly much too small for anyone to be stuck for days on end, and Tom couldn’t help feeling the slightest twinge of guilt. “What would you do if I were to let you out of that circle?”

Harry looked surprised by the question, but he seemed to give it some serious consideration before he answered. “Probably see if I can beat you at cards as well as I can beat myself.”

“Really? That’s it? No rampage down the streets, no running away to avoid a deal, no carnage?”

It was interesting that Harry looked slightly sickened by the very idea. “No, nothing like that. What would I get out of it? Just because I’m the devil doesn’t mean I delight in seeing blood spilled. And I already told you that I can’t take your soul if you’re dead, so there’s no reason for me to attack you. And if I wanted to go home, I could go right now, so there’s no reason for me to flee the second the circle is broken.”

That last part immediately put Tom on edge, and he couldn’t help feeling somewhat lied to. “You’re telling me that you could just leave anytime you want?”

Harry shrugged one shoulder. “Well, I wouldn’t be able to wander around the human world or anything, just straight back home, but yeah. It would be a waste of time, though, because I wouldn’t be able to come back here without being summoned again, so it makes more sense to just stick it out here until the three days are up.”

Tom narrowed his eyes as he took that in, and then he sighed and let his shoulders slump down. Whatever was going to happen, Harry was the one with all the power already, and if he wanted Tom’s soul then of course he was going to stick around.

So he nudged his foot forward, scraping over the paint until it was scuffed enough that there was a sliver of space in the line. Harry grinned and hopped out of the circle. He took in a deep breath, and then laughed loudly. “Oh, this feels nice! You never realize how stuffy it gets in a single spot until you’re stuck there, even if you don’t need to breath.”

The moment Harry had crossed the line, Tom had reached into his pocket to grip tightly at his wand. He watched warily as Harry moved around the flat as if he had every right to explore. After a couple of minutes, Harry made his way back over to Tom, and then flopped down onto the ratty old couch that had come with the place. “What are you doing?”

Harry reached into his own pocket, and pulled out a deck of cards. “You said you’d play the winner, remember?” Then he shook the cards out of the box, shuffled them a few times, and started dealing into two small stacks on the coffee table.

It seemed like an utterly bizarre, and yet utterly mundane, thing to do, but Tom sank down onto the couch as well, leaving a cushion open between them. He took his pile once Harry finished dealing, and shifted so that he was sitting at an angle so Harry wouldn’t be able to see his hand. “What are we playing, anyways?”

Harry shrugged. “I was thinking war.”

“That’s a kid’s game,” Tom protested immediately. And, more importantly, “And it’s a muggle game!”

Harry raised one eyebrow so that it fluttered over the upper rim of his glasses. “Don’t tell me that you’re afraid you’re going to lose, Tom.”

Tom scowled. “You’re going down,” he promised in what was supposed to be a threatening voice, but came out sounding more playful than anything. He shuffled his hand, and then put the stack face down on the table. “This may be a game of luck, but I happen to have quite a lot of that.”

The game seemed to stretch on forever, and Tom suspected that Harry cheated a few times (but he couldn’t really call the devil out on it when Tom was also cheating). When Harry was down to his last few cards, Tom grinned, confident that he was about to win the game. They ended up with a long chain of battle, and if Tom won, he’d take the game, and if Harry one, he’d have a sizeable stack to put him back in the running. 

He made sure that his next card was going to be a high one, and set down a queen. Harry had a mischievous twinkle in his eyes as he gently put down his own card, which was an ace. “Looks like I-”

Harry started to reach out to gather up his spoils, but Tom slapped his hand down on top of Harry’s. “Why you little cheat. I have four aces in my deck right now, so you couldn’t possibly have one in yours.” 

Harry’s eyes widened, and then he shot Tom a wide grin before he scooped up as many cards as he could fit in one hand with their current awkward angles, and then he leapt up from the couch and ran off. “You only win if you have all the cards in your hand, remember?” he called back over his shoulder.

Tom immediately gave chase, and ended up running after Harry through the small flat for a few minutes before it devolved into both of them just running in circles around the couch. That ended, though, when Tom got the brilliant idea to just spring right over the center of the couch, and he tackled Harry to the floor, knocking the ill-gotten cards out of his hand. “I think we can safely say that I’m the winner,” Tom declared breathlessly.

Even though Harry supposedly wasn’t human, he also seemed to be out of breath from all the running. “Alright, fine, I yield.” 

They both just stayed there like that for a few very long seconds, before Tom realized how inappropriate it was, and he scrambled up to his feet, leaving Harry sprawled across the floor. He cleared his throat once. “Right, uh, we should probably clean up all the cards.”

Harry seemed like he had to break free of a daze before he blinked a few times and then nodded in agreement. “Right, uh, yeah, that makes sense.” Both of them stayed perfectly still for another moment, though, before they both started to move at the same time to clean up.  
,,,

“So then you’ve really changed your mind? You’re not going to try to sell your soul anymore?”

The woman slowly shook her head. “No, I- I don’t think I will. You’re right; really. All I’m trying to do is take a shortcut, but that won’t ever give me the same feeling of accomplishment that I’d get from earning it all on my own. Someday, when I’m a famous author, I’m going to summon you again to give you a copy of my book. Thank you, Harry.”

He smiled at her, and gently reached out to give her hand a light squeeze. “You’re welcome. And I’m looking forward to reading your best seller, and seeing you get on that list through your own hard work and determination.” 

With that taken care of, Harry returned home, and grabbed the woman’s file. He tossed it into the fire that was always kept burning, and grinned to himself. He had gone his entire existence ignorant to everything that the devil did, but now that he knew, he was doing everything in his power to change things for the better, and so far it was working.

He didn’t expect to leave his room and bump into Ron, of all people. Ron despised the dungeons, and ever since Harry had moved down here, he’d hardly seen or heard from his best friend at all. “Ron?”

Ron looked back and forth uneasily, as if he expected a demon to jump out any second and attack him. “I like what you’ve done with the place,” he said in a completely unconvincing voice. 

“Thanks. Hey, do you want to get a tour? I’ve made a lot of changes around here, so maybe if you-”

Ron shook his head as he cut Harry off. “I’m actually here because They sent me down to fetch you. They want to talk to you, and that’s all They said about it.”

Harry blinked once, and then nodded. “Oh, yeah- alright, I’ll be right there.” Seeing Ron for the first time in half a year only to find out it wasn’t because Ron wanted to see him, well it hurt. At least Hermione had made the effort to come by a couple of times to check on Harry, and she had earnestly told him that if he ever needed help figuring out how to change a human’s mind, he could go to her. From Ron there had only been complete silence.

It didn’t feel as weird as it used to, to leave the dungeons. At first it had been something of a shock to his system, since the dungeons were so different from everywhere else. But with all of Harry’s renovations, the dungeons had started to feel more like a home than the upper floors ever had. 

He made his way to Their office, and walked in without knocking. They were expecting him, so They already knew he was there. He sat down in the chair across from the desk, and looked at Them expectantly. “Ron said that you wanted to see me?”

They let out a weary sigh, and Harry winced, hoping that he wasn’t the cause of that exhaustion. “You’ve been quite busy in your new position. But it seems to me that you’ve sorely misunderstood the purpose of your job. The devil does not exist to save souls, Harry. You are a kind-hearted man, but you need to steele your heart now.”

Harry scooted forward to the edge of his seat. “You’re the one who gave me this job, and you know exactly who I am. There’s no way you expected me to just keep running the show the same way Voldemort always did. You sent me down there to make changes, so that’s what I’m doing.”

They sighed again. “The job that the devil does is necessary. The same way that a mint destroys old money so that there’s never too much in circulation at once. It’s not as though I randomly choose souls to take; they only come from those that willingly give them up. If a human wants to give up the rest of their eternity in exchange for a few creature comforts, who are we to stop them?”

Harry could see the sense in what They were saying, but that didn’t stop him from stubbornly setting his jaw and crossing his arms over his chest. “If they knew the real price, then I doubt any of them would take the deal!”

“Then why have you not told them?”

It was a valid question. None of the humans that Harry had gone to convince they needed to drop their deal had been informed of the real weight of their choice. “Because that’s too much of a burden for them to deal with. It could ruin the rest of their life to know what happens after they die. Some might even take it as an excuse to quit early and try again, and that’s not what I want.”

There was a moment of silence, and then They shook Their head. “I’m sorry, but I simply cannot allow-”

“You put me down there for a reason!” Harry interrupted, standing up and slamming his hand down on the desk before he really thought about it. If he stopped to think at all, he would never stand up to Them like this. After all, They knew everything, and had to know what was best for everyone. “You put me down there for a reason,” he repeated in a quieter voice. “If it wasn’t to save souls, then why put me down there at all? Why not promote someone like Gellert, who’d be more than happy to keep taking souls and doing things the way they’ve always been done?”

His heart was pounding in his chest at the thought of all the things They could do to punish him for speaking his mind to Them, but he refused to back down. Like he’d said, They knew who he was when They sent him down. When They finally spoke, Harry waited nervously for Their verdict. “You’ll have three days for each soul. If you cannot convince them otherwise within that time, then you must accept the terms of their deal, no matter what. And you are not to personally visit every single human that conducts a summoning. You will obey my rules, or you will not be the devil for very much longer.”

Harry nodded more times than was necessary, and heaved out a large sigh of relief. “Yes, thank you, yes.” Some of the more stubborn humans had taken weeks to convince, but Harry would figure out how to make three days work, because he was determined to save as many souls as possible.  
,,,

Tom remained where he was, hidden from sight, and watched Harry move around the flat. He wanted to know what the devil did when he thought that nobody was watching him. 

Harry spent some time listening to the radio, and then flipped through almost every book that Tom owned. He cleaned up everything that was even slightly dirty, and then went through Tom’s closet. Tom had enough money to live, but he was not yet at the point in his life where he was drowning in extravagant wealth, so his selection of clothing wasn’t very vast. 

That didn’t seem to bother Harry, though, as he pulled out everything and tried them all on. Seeing Harry wear his clothes, which were all just a bit too long on him, made a strange feeling build up in Tom’s stomach. He did his best to ignore it as he continued to focus on what Harry was doing.

Once he was finished playing dress up, he went to the kitchen, and looked at everything in the pantry and the ice box. He grumbled under his breath, clearly dissatisfied with the selection, and then Tom watched as more food was summoned. Harry put it all away, organizing it all as he went, though he left out a few things.

Harry turned on the stove, set a pot down, and then got to cooking. It didn’t take long for a delicious smell to fill the flat, and Tom’s stomach grumbled louder than he would have expected. Harry whirled around, eyes scanning over everything as he looked for the source of the noise.

Tom let out a soft sigh, and then shucked aside the fraying invisible cloak he’d gotten for cheap from a house sale. “What are you making?”

Harry stared at him for a few seconds before he answered. “Ziti. It’s good, trust me. A lot better than that ridiculous jello stuff they’re constantly making over in the States. Trust me, you do not want to know.” He fidgeted with his hands for a moment, and it struck Tom just how utterly ridiculous it was to see the devil look nervous. He just barely managed to refrain from laughing out loud when he saw that Harry had opened his mouth to speak. “This is gonna take a while. After I do the prep, do you want to play a game?”

“Sure.” Tom watched closely as Harry put all the ingredients together without referencing either of the cookbooks that Tom owned (though he rarely used). Once Harry was done layering everything up in the big casserole dish, he stuck it in the oven and then set the egg timer for nearly an hour. “So what do you want to play?”

Harry hummed thoughtfully as he pushed his way past Tom (which inevitably forced them to brush up against each other thanks to the very small kitchen space), and over to the bookshelf in the living room. “How about we play a game to see which of us is smarter?” 

Tom rolled his eyes. “This seems biased against me, considering my lack of all-knowing omniscience.”

“I’m not all-knowing,” Harry said, as if that was supposed to be the most obvious thing in the world. “If I was then I would have picked a king instead of an ace.” Tom snorted as he thought about the disastrous end to their card game last night, though the amusement faded when he thought about the very end, when he’d had Harry pinned to the floor. It would definitely be for the best to avoid any games that might end like that. “So what do you suggest?”

Tom sighed. “I’m not exactly fully stocked with board games, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“Not a problem!” Harry reminded him enthusiastically. “Any game you can think of, I can bring here.” 

“Alright, how about…” Tom trailed off as it occurred to him that he didn’t really know any games to pick from. “You decide,” he magnanimously offered.

There was a knowing look on Harry’s face, but he closed his eyes for a moment as he thought about it. A moment later, a deck of cards appeared, different than the ordinary muggle deck from the previous night. “How about exploding snap? I guess I’ll need a stick or something, since I don’t have a wand.”

Tom went into his room for a minute, and opened one of the desk drawers that were spelled to only let Tom touch them. He pulled out a spare wand that he’d won off of some idiot that had dared to challenge him to a duel, and returned to the living room to hand it to Harry. “It won’t feel right to you since it’s not really yours, but it should be fine for a card game.”

If Harry was curious about why Tom had an extra wand, he didn’t say anything. He just grinned, and went over to the couch to plop down and start setting up the cards in the traditional format. “Sorry, but I’m not really adventurous enough to try any of the other formations.”

Tom raised one eyebrow. “And you think that I am… adventurous?”

“Oh, I know that you are,” Harry responded instantly. “Ready?”

“Ready to win? Always.” Then the game started and they both began paying strict attention to the cards as they flipped, snickering at each other every time a card exploded on them. Tom had to admit that it was actually pretty fun, and he could understand why it had been such a popular game among the students of Hogwarts. 

He was actually a bit disappointed when the timer went off, interrupting their game. Sure, he was hungry after hiding and sneaking around his own flat all day to spy on Harry, but Tom still wished that the fun of the game could have lasted for just a little bit longer.  
,,,

Harry found that it didn’t take very long to get into the swing of things, and within a few years of having become the new devil, everything in the dungeons ran smoother than it ever had before. He set up rewards for the demons that were able to dissuade their summoners the quickest, and the natural competitiveness of the demons made them strive to beat each other. 

Instead of keeping himself isolated in his chambers with the occasional visit to instill fear into the demons, Harry constantly interacted with them and spent time with them. He got to know all of them, and had long conversations about the things they wanted from life. Even the ones he’d long ago given up on as pure evil turned out to be normal people in a way he never would have expected.

Maybe he’d dreaded it when he’d first been given this new task, but in the end he found that it was actually more enjoyable than he would have thought. And while there were still some humans that insisted on making a deal after their three days were up, Harry and his demons succeeded more than they failed, and it was a good feeling. 

Harry was the devil for so long that he stopped keeping track of the years, and he was the happiest that he’d ever been. One day he sat down to read a book that Hermione had recommended to him, and he found it to be quite intriguing. It was about guardian angels, and nearly every detail was wrong, but that was what made it so enjoyable.

He certainly didn’t expect to disappear from where he’d been comfortably lounging by the fireplace, and to reappear in one of the circles that were meant to trap his kind. It was quite strange, because Harry knew for sure that he hadn’t put himself on the roster to be summoned by anyone that month, so he had no idea how he’d been pulled here.

Then he looked up at the face of his summoner, and was immediately hit by two very distinct thoughts. First, that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen such a beautiful person. And second, that said beautiful person was already missing his soul.  
,,,

Tom nudged Harry awake, and the devil’s eyes fluttered open immediately. His eyes looked shockingly green from up close without any glasses in the way. “I’m surprised you’re still sleeping. I would have thought you’d want to take advantage of every minute you have left to convince me not to sell my soul. You’ve only got today, remember?”

Harry groaned as he slowly sat up, pushing aside the blanket that he’d been borrowing for the past couple of nights. “Ugh. Unfortunately, we don’t have a full day. There’s pretty strict rules about the whole ‘three days’ thing. You summoned me midday, so I’ve only got until midday today before time’s up. Have I? Convinced you already, that is?”

Tom furrowed his eyebrows. “No. You’ve barely even tried.” And it certainly didn’t escape his notice that Harry seemed disappointed by the idea of not being able to convince him. And he’d never answered the question about what he does with the souls that he buys. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you sound like you want to fail.”

Harry hesitated, and then hopped up, his usual grin in place. “Don’t be silly! Come on, let’s see if you have anything suitable for breakfast. Then we can head out and walk around the park or something. It’s been so long since I’ve felt the sun on my skin.”

Even though he was absolutely certain that Harry was keeping something from him, Tom went along with it. He ate the eggs that Harry made for him, and then loaned Harry a jacket before they headed out. Harry seemed to get very easily distracted by everything around them, and Tom had to loop their arms together to stop the devil from just wandering off on him. 

As the sun rose higher, more people spilled out onto the streets. They walked around a mostly muggle neighborhood because Tom was concerned about what would happen if any other wizards spotted Harry, and Tom listened to Harry babble on about the book he’d been in the middle of reading before Tom had summoned him. 

The book sounded interesting enough for what it was, but Tom found himself paying more attention to the sound of Harry’s voice than to anything that was actually being said. When they passed by in front of an ice-cream vendor, Tom pulled out some of the muggle currency that he always kept on him just in case, and bought a cone for Harry without prompting. The look of absolute delight on Harry’s face as he ate the treat made it a worthwhile thing to have done.

Eventually they returned to Tom’s flat, and then Harry suddenly grabbed Tom by the shoulders. “What do you need immortality for, anyways? I’ve met people who were able to accomplish more in twenty minutes than others could in several lifetimes. It’s not about how much time you have, but what you do with it that matters. You could have eternity and still not live your best life.” There was desperation leaking from his every word, and Tom scowled at the last ditch attempt. “I may have only known you for a few days, but I know that you’re capable of accomplishing anything that you put your mind to, and you don’t need immortality to-”

Tom knocked Harry’s hands aside. “Enough! It’s my soul, and I’m going to decide what I want to do with it. And I want to sell it in exchange for immortality. Besides, I won’t have to worry about getting bored with all that time on my hands. I can always just summon you to see you again, right?” He kept his tone light, but hated that he actually wanted to be able to see Harry more often. The devil really was a tricky bastard, even if Tom didn’t understand why Harry wouldn’t want to buy his soul.

Harry dropped his head so that he was looking down at the floor. “Actually… it’s not your soul.” 

Tom took a step back, and reached into his pocket to grab for his wand, just in case. “What do you mean?”

“I could tell from the moment I laid eyes on you, you don’t have a soul. And I don’t mean in that emotionless way that humans do. Souls aren’t like that, in reality. They’re not a center for thoughts and feelings, they’re basically just a train ticket for you. Every human has one unless they sell it, but you don’t have yours.”

Tom pulled his wand out to point it directly at Harry. He didn’t think that he’d actually be able to hurt the devil, but it made him feel better to have it, and he needed more answers than he was getting. “I think I would remember if I sold my soul in the past.”

Harry shrugged, still looking down at the floor. “Without popping back home, I can’t look into the matter. I have no idea how something like this could happen, but it has, and I just don’t… I don’t know what to do.” He finally looked up, though he avoided making eye contact, and Tom could see that he looked miserable. “I thought that maybe I could make it a non-issue, but… I need to talk to my boss. They probably already know about this whole situation, but I just need to hear from Them what I’m supposed to do here. I’ll get this figured out, I promise.”

But Tom had never been one to trust his fate to others, so he lunged forward and wrapped his hand around Harry’s wrist a moment before Harry disappeared. The sensation that followed was the strangest thing that Tom had ever felt, nothing like apparition. It felt like his entire body was dissolving into little specks, but it didn’t hurt at all. 

And then it was over as suddenly as it had started, and Tom found himself standing in a large stone room. It should have felt drafty, but instead had a cozy atmosphere to it, between the color scheme and the roaring fire and the bookshelves lining the walls. He looked at Harry, who was staring at him, eyes wide with shock. “You’re- you’re really not supposed to be here. Oh this is all going terribly wrong.” He pulled himself free from Tom’s grip so that he could go digging through a filing cabinet in the corner, and emerged empty-handed after a minute. He let out a heavy sigh as he looked at Tom again. “Come on, let’s get you up to my boss before this turns into an even bigger mess.”

They stepped out into the hallway, and there was someone standing there, hand raised like they’d been about to knock. “Oh, hey boss. It’s been a few days since anyone’s seen you, so I was just making sure that everything’s…” she trailed off as she looked over Harry’s shoulder at Tom. “Uh, what-”

“Don’t worry, I’m taking care of this situation.” Then he took off running down the corridor, and Tom had no choice but to follow along, no matter how tempted he was to look around and explore. Eventually they reached a set of stairs, and looking at them, they seemed to keep going up forever. So it was weird when it only took a few steps to reach the top, and when he glanced back, the stairs still looked like they went on for infinity. 

They kept moving, ignoring everyone that tried to call out to them, until they eventually reached what looked like an ordinary office door. Harry didn’t bother knocking before pushing the door open and stepping inside, and Tom followed him in. He stared in disbelief at what had to be Harry’s boss. Instead of a person-like figure, there was just a massive blob of light, like the way it looked when one stared directly up at the sun, but without being painfully blinding. 

Harry walked right up to the desk. “I don’t know what you did, but I know that somehow, this has to be your fault. This man has no soul, but he never sold it. And I don’t have any records of a transaction involving his soul.” 

When the blobby being spoke, it wasn’t out loud, but somehow something that Tom could hear inside his head. “You asked many times in the beginning where Voldemort had gone.” Tom frowned at the name that he had chosen for his followers to call him, but he stayed quiet. “No one was able to find him no matter how hard they searched, but that is because you all assumed that he still lived. But he does not. I got rid of him because of his despicable final act.”

Harry crossed his arms over his chest. “What could he have possibly done to deserve…?”

“He made a deal for a soul, as his job required of him, but the one making the deal did not sell their own soul. A woman, Merope Gaunt, had used love potions on Thomas Riddle for many years so that he would stay with her. After their son, Tom Marvolo Riddle, was born, she stopped, hoping that Thomas would have grown to love her on his own. He did not, but he also would never trust anything she offered him to eat or drink, so she had no way of trapping him again.

“That is when Merope turned to a different sort of magic, and she called for the devil, for Voldemort. He showed up in person after the first demon on the scene explained the situation. He was intrigued by the idea she gave him. She was frightened by the thought of selling her own soul, so she offered up that of her infant son instead. Only a few days old, and clearly unable to advocate for himself. 

“And Voldemort, despite all the knowledge about what he was allowed to do, chose to accept that deal. I very rarely use the word ‘evil’ and mean it, but it was an evil act. He took that baby’s forever, knowing that there was no way the baby could have chosen it for himself.

“But now young Tom has clearly proven that he is, in fact, willing to sell his soul. So you will take his deal. We already have his soul, and we owe him the payment for it. And that will be the end of this whole mess.”

Tom was pretty sure he was looking at God, or whatever was closest to being what he’d been taught was God, which meant that he should have been terrified to draw any more attention to himself. But he had to say something, didn’t he? “So I’ve never had a say in the matter? My mum sold my soul to the devil and now I get my due?”

Harry turned to grab Tom’s arm. “Now’s probably not the time to be arguing that you want more out of your deal.”

Tom gave Harry an annoyed look, and then tugged his arm free. He looked back at the blob, and didn’t care if a human wasn’t supposed to address it. It’s not like Tom had ever been an ordinary human. “What do you do with the souls that you buy? I think I deserve to know at least that much, considering you’ve had mine all this time without my knowledge or consent.”

There was an almost awkwardly long moment of silence, and then Harry spoke, so Tom assumed that the blob had spoken privately to Harry. “The usual policy is to destroy them. Throw them into that fire in my room which is hot enough to erase them permanently. Yours was apparently put into storage instead, since your end of the deal had never been fulfilled.”

Tom couldn’t help pausing. Of course he still wanted to be immortal, but… “You mean that I could get my soul back if I wanted to? What would that mean for me? You already said that souls aren’t about feelings or whatever, but I find that hard to believe, considering how I’ve been my whole life.”

Harry shook his head. “Your soul has absolutely nothing to do with emotions, I promise.” He hesitated for a moment before adding, “I told you before, a soul is like a ticket. You… do you really want to know? If I tell you, I think that it will change your life in a lot of ways that you might not appreciate.”

“Tell me,” he insisted. Tom had never been the kind of person capable of turning down the opportunity to learn something new, especially if it was something that very few other people knew. Magic was important when it came to amassing power, but so was knowledge. 

There was another moment of hesitation, and then Harry answered. “Your soul is how you keep going. After you die, you live again, and again, and again, forever. Human souls have always existed, and they’re supposed to keep existing forever. If you sell your soul, it gets destroyed, and your journey is over once you die.”

Tom’s eyes widened as he took that in. He’d never been one to believe in reincarnation, but considering that it was the devil himself telling him, he had no reason not to believe that it was true. But that also meant something else very important. “If my soul is supposed to keep existing forever, then that means… I’ve already kind of gotten what I wanted, haven’t I?”

Harry blinked a few times, and then tilted his head to the side as he thought about it. “I suppose, if you look at it a certain way, then… yeah, you’re already immortal. But I’m not going to lie to you, you’ll still die in this life. You’ll never be Tom Marvolo Riddle again.”

“But it will still be the same soul, right? Which means that I could have the same thoughts and beliefs and wishes?”

Harry shrugged. “I don’t really keep track of souls across their different lives. I can’t promise you anything.”

Tom shrugged as well. “Well, I can always summon you again if I change my mind, right?” 

“Right.”

Tom nodded, satisfied that they’d reached a solution. “Then just give me my soul back, and I’ll be on my way.”

Harry furrowed his eyebrows. “But just an hour ago, you were so adamant that you weren’t going to change my mind. You seemed pretty sure that you wanted to make a deal for immortality.”

“It’s not as though I really knew what giving up my soul would actually mean for me. It’s not like anyone puts any fine print in the books about summoning the devil.” 

Harry looked towards the blob, and after a moment, he nodded once. “Right, I understand.” He turned back to Tom. “Come on.” They went back down to the lower floor, and to the room they’d first appeared in. Tom sank down onto a surprisingly comfortable chair while Harry went digging through the filing cabinet again. After a few minutes of searching, he pulled out a small gray box. “Aha! This was definitely not there before.” He walked over to Tom, and held out the box. “Just open this, and then I’ll bring you back to your flat.”

Tom took a deep breath, and then popped the box open. He felt somewhat disappointed when nothing happened and he didn’t feel any different. “That’s it?”

Harry nodded. “Yup, you’ve got your soul back. Now I just need to- uh, I actually have no idea how to get you home. None of us can go to the human world without being summoned.”

“Can your boss send us?”

Harry shook his head. “I don’t think so. Uh, I’m sorry, but I think you’ll just have to wait here until the next time someone is summoned. If any of the demons are summoned, they can come back and we can go. It might be a bit of a shock to whoever summoned them when two of us show up, but that’s alright. It shouldn’t take too long; there’s usually at least one or two summonings a week.”

Tom sighed. “I suppose this is technically my fault for hitching a ride with you without knowing where it would lead me. Though if I hadn’t, then I might not have gotten my soul back.” He leaned back, and reached up to thread his fingers together and lean his head back against his hands. “Well, I did let you stick around in my place for three days, so really it’s the least you can do to return the favor.” What he didn’t bother to mention was that he was surprisingly looking forward to spending a little bit more time with Harry.  
,,,

When it was time to bring Tom home, Harry couldn’t help feeling like he wanted to drag his feet before getting it done. He knew that bringing Tom back was the right thing to do, since humans just weren’t meant to be in this place, at least not while they were still alive. And even souls were not supposed to be down in the dungeons. It just wasn’t the right place for them, no matter how fun it was to spend time with Tom.

For all these years, Harry had thought that life in the dungeons was better than he’d thought it would be, but he hadn’t known that he was missing out on so much by not having someone like Tom with him to make everything better. 

But still, it was time for it to end. There always needed to be an end to everything. Harry took Tom’s hand, and took him back to the human world. They found themselves standing in someone’s house. An older man looked shocked to see them appear, and Harry was quick to apologize. “I’m sorry, but I’ll be right back to take care of whatever deal you want to make. Right now, I just need to run a quick errand.” Then he pulled Tom out of there, and quickly hailed a cab to bring them back to Tom’s flat. 

Of course, Harry could have just given Tom some money and sent him on his way, but he wanted even just a few more minutes. The ride passed by in mostly awkward silence, and then they both got out once they’d reached their destination. They watched together as the taxi drove away, and then Tom turned to look at Harry. “So you’re going back to buy that guy’s soul, then?”

“It is my job, so yeah. But I’ll try really hard not to. I know that I can’t save all of them, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try my best.”

Tom made a mock hurt face. “You mean to say that I’m not the only one you’ve tried to save from themselves?”

Harry shook his head. “Sorry, guess you’re just not that special.”

Tom snorted. “I’ll have you know that I am very special.” He paused for a moment, and then reached out to pat Harry’s shoulder. “It was surprisingly nice to spend time with you, all things considered.”

“Yeah, yeah it was.”  
,,,

Tom set aside the book once he’d finished the incantation, and then waited impatiently for the gray smoke to appear and then disappear. And then Harry was standing there, in the center of a circle that Tom had already moved to break before the smoke had even vanished entirely. 

Harry blinked a few times in confusion, and then his eyes settled on Tom. He looked disappointed for just a second before he was able to hide it. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.”

“I’ve decided that I want to make a deal after all. My soul in exchange for you.”

Harry had started talking to try and dissuade Tom, but he froze when he heard the rest of the deal. “You- what? Why would you-? Tom…?”

Tom crossed his arms over his chest, and adopted an air of impatience. “Well, you’ve got three days to make me change my mind, right? May as well make the most of them.” 

For a few long seconds, Tom thought that maybe all of this had been a terrible mistake, and that Harry hadn’t felt the same way about their time together as Tom had. But then a brilliant grin lit up Harry’s face, and he lunged forward to pull Tom into a hug. “Three days, huh? I’m sure I can think of something to make you change your mind with all that time.”

Tom grinned, and tightened his arms around Harry, unwilling to let go just yet. “You are very persuasive. But I have the feeling that I’m going to keep coming up with all kinds of things that I might want to sell my soul for the moment you’re out of sight.”

Harry let out an exaggerated sigh. “Then I guess I’ll just have to keep showing up and convincing you to change your mind. You’re stuck with me now, at least for the next three days.”

“Oh don’t you worry, Harry, there’s going to be a lot more three days after this. I plan on being stuck with you for quite a while yet. After all, I’m basically immortal, right?”

Harry laughed. “Don’t let it go to your head. You’re in the same position as all humans.”

Tom let out a little growl. “Believe me, by the time these three days are up, you are never going to compare me to another person again.” 

Both of them found that they were quite looking forward to seeing how the other would try and make their point. And they were both looking forward to the many more days together that were still to come.

**Author's Note:**

> It's pretty late at night so idk how much of this actually made sense xD


End file.
